A “dramatic” situation… which could perhaps have been avoided?
These days, Martinique and Guadeloupe are posting unprecedented incidence rates and records of hospitalizations and admissions to critical care linked to Covid-19.
But "none" of these most seriously affected patients was vaccinated, said several local doctors and the Minister of Health in recent days.
This observation is confirmed by the new figures from the Drees, published this Friday morning.
The hospitalization data were “crossed” with that of vaccination, at the regional level for the first time.
From July 5 to August 1, of the 249 patients who tested positive admitted to conventional hospitalization and the 41 patients who entered critical care in Martinique, all were unvaccinated.
The overwhelming majority had not received any dose of the vaccine, and only two had received a first injection and were awaiting the second.
Same story in Guadeloupe: 84 hospitalizations and 20 critical care admissions of patients positive for Covid-19 in nearly a month, and 100% of them were unvaccinated.
Read also Covid-19: Martinique, Guyana ... why overseas are three times less vaccinated than the metropolis
Vaccination coverage is certainly very low in these overseas territories, but one in four inhabitants has received a first dose and nearly one in five is fully vaccinated.
These figures prove that vaccines are effective in protecting serious forms.
Caregivers reinforcements
If we report these data to the population, Martinique recorded from July 5 to August 1 842 hospitalizations of Covid patients per million inhabitants. This is by far the highest rate among all French regions. Guadeloupe, where this 4th wave only really started about two weeks later, comes in 4th position, behind Martinique therefore, but also Guyana, Reunion and Corsica. Occitanie and Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur follow, regions of mainland France deemed “the most worrying” by the Institut Pasteur in its latest models published on Thursday evening.
With the updated figures which will be available next Friday, there is no doubt that Guadeloupe will be closer to Martinique. Not only has the flow of hospital admissions continued to increase in recent days, this trend is expected to continue as the incidence rate continues to increase impressively. It has just exceeded the unprecedented number of 2,000, which means that one in 50 Guadeloupe has tested positive within a week.
More than 200 caregivers arrived from metropolitan France to the West Indies this week, in order to be able to take care of more patients on site and to avoid medical evacuations. Saturday July 31, three patients in intensive care have already been transferred from Fort-de-France (Martinique) to health establishments in the Paris region. The authorities also hope to convince more residents to be vaccinated, despite very strong local mistrust. In the meantime, Martinique and Guadeloupe are subject to very strict containment measures.
